Love is in the air… or… ooh, that smell

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Scientists, for some time, have been attempting to understand how the process of olfaction drives partner attraction.

For the lay person, plunging into a lively discourse involving the elementary principles of nanotechnology or molecular biology might seem a stretch for the imagination.

An even more inaccessible topic might involve recent advances in the applications of positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging for unlocking the mystery of what a person is actually seeing, smelling and tasting.

But wait have no fear, Science Caf, a somewhat avant-garde concept that has been incubating for some time in European coffee houses, is here.

When Emmanuelle Schuler, a researcher in Rice Universitys Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory, fortuitously hooked up with Jackie Campbell of the coffee house Salento, in Rice Village, a forum was born.

Campbell, an ebullient finance type, having spent four years in Barcelona while completing her MBA, was already well acquainted with the novel concept.

The Science Caf offers a platform where the audience challenges an interdisciplinary panel of experts sciences, art and culture on the ways science and technology shape todays society, says Schuler of her brainchild. Through genuine and informed discussions among lay people, scientific experts and experts from nonscientific disciplines (be they humanists, ethicists, artists, sociologists and journalists), we are aiming at building bridges between science and society.

The Smell of Love: Is Love a Chemical Addiction? was the second of a series of public discussions scheduled for the cozy atmosphere. Campbell, stoked about the concept, says the idea clicked instantly when she was approached by Schuler.

The Love panel, moderated by Christi Myers, Health Check reporter for KTRK-TVs 13 Eyewitness News, included Denise Chen, assistant professor of Psychology at Rice University, Stuart Dryer, chairman of the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Houston and Jerry Pope, aromatherapist and CEO of Source Vital.

Communication through chemical signals such as olfaction has long been established in many animals, says Chen, who employs a combination of techniques in her studies on social psychology and sensory psychophysics.

According to the panel, pheromones play an important role, as evidenced by the exponential growth in an emerging market for this stuff of love which can be extracted and recreated in a laboratory environment.

Pheromones, themselves unable to be detected by the conscious mind, are sensed through pheromone receptors, or sensory neurons, in what is called the Vomeronasal organ, or VNO, and they can make you smell sexy to the unsuspecting target of your desires.

An alternative neural pathway from the VNO to the brain bypasses the cerebral cortex and enables this encephalo-intrigue.

Furthermore, air-borne aphrodisiacs can play an important role in enhancing ones mood.

Although both vision and olfaction are important to males, research suggests that olfaction is a dominant factor in women.

As samples of ylang ylang and jasmine oil circulated around the room, the crowd was asked which olfactory aphrodisiacs were given top ratings.

The answer: for men, a combination of jasmine and pumpkin pie, and, for women, a combination of Good and Plenty candy and cucumber.

And how does nanotechnology fit into the discussion?

A very popular word these days, the term is used rather broadly, usually in connection with science and technology at the molecular level of matter associated with the development of semiconductors and molecular manufacturing.

Simply put, nanotechnology deals with a branch of science where the dimensions in question range from 0.1 nanometer to 100 nm, one nm being one billionth of a meter.

Since olfaction involves the presentation of molecules to sensory receptors, it makes sense that this term would find a comfortable nest in the fields of molecular biology and biochemistry.

Furthermore, the state of the art in brain imaging has enabled scientists to study the impacts of various sensory stimuli on primates, and although humans are possessed of a less developed sense of smell than other mammals, say, a dog, or insects like the fruit fly, smell is, nonetheless, an important stimuli influencing human behavior, and mate selection and identification is an increasingly fertile area for study.